Erasing Mistakes
by Sue Penkivech
Summary: Why did Caroline volunteer for the Dollhouse? Possibly not why we think. Spoilers for "Briar Rose". Reviews welcome!


Disclaimer: Dollhouse isn't mine. Though if Fox cancels it, I'd love to have the rights to Topher!

**Erasing Mistakes**

Adele's heels clicked a staccato as she paced the length of her office. She hated this. Hated the uncertainty, hated the necessity of appearing unruffled when the Dollhouse's security was breached, hated the idea that, despite the fact she was the Director of the organization, there was nothing she could actively _do_ act this juncture. Granted, Boyd was far more capable than she to apprehend their missing active, but still. She had a responsibility to Caroline, to Echo, every bit as much as she'd had one to Alpha himself. And once again, she'd failed. And there was nothing, ultimately, that she could do.

"You can't keep me here forever, you know," Paul Ballard observed.

Adele turned on her heel, her eyebrows rising as her eyes settled on the battered agent whom Boyd had thoughtfully secured to a chair before leaving. Despite her inner turmoil, she appeared cool, collected, the very image of the unflappable Dollhouse Director. It was, after all, an act she'd had plenty of occasion to practice of late.

"On the contrary, Mr. Ballard," she said coolly. "We can, quite literally, keep you here forever. Though I rather doubt that will be necessary."

"What've you done with Caroline?"

Despite herself, Adele laughed. "Oh, Caroline's quite capable of taking care of herself, I assure you," she observed. "She excels at coming through difficult situations unscathed. And in any case, it seems your - shall we say friend? Has her care well in hand."

"Your former designer is no friend of mine," Ballard asserted.

"No? It would appear you're quite close," Adele said pointedly. "After all, you did bring him with you when you chose to recklessly walk into our establishment. Though I do recommend you pick your associates more carefully. Rogue dolls, after all, are rather unpredictable."

"The regular ones are less so? Oh, I forgot, they're whatever you want them to be," Ballard mocked. "Assassin, sex toy…both at once?"

Adele glared. "It would appear you benefited from just such a use yourself, Mr. Ballard. Something you might want to keep in mind before you condemn us. Our actives are volunteers-"

Ballard snorted. "Why would anyone volunteer to be a slave?"

Silent for a moment, Adele turned and looked back at the monitor that displayed the conference room in which she'd met with Caroline for the first time. "I assure you, they have their reasons," she said softly, more to herself than to him as she remembered her meeting with Caroline, two years before.

***********

"_What, you think I'm going to agree to give up five years of my life, just to avoid a B&E charge?" Caroline asked disdainfully. "Why would I do that?"_

_Adele passed her the cup of tea she'd declined, her eyebrows rising. "Because I believe we have something you want."_

_Caroline sniffed cautiously as she accepted the cup, thirst winning out over paranoia. "Like what?" she asked doubtfully as she took a tentative sip. _

_Meeting Caroline's eyes levelly, Adele replied, "Leo."_

_The cup fell from Caroline's hands to the desk and shattered, hot tea splattering over her shirt. She didn't appear to notice. "Leo's dead," she said, her tone angry even as her eyes pleaded with Adele to tell her otherwise._

_Adele nodded, and reached behind her for the towel that had been laid on the tray. "He is," she agreed. "But he doesn't have to be."_

_Caroline's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"_

_Instead of answering, Adele spread the towel out over the tea and broken glass, and carefully mopped it up. Caroline would be an asset to the Dollhouse, with her spirit and tenacity. The imprint obtained from her dying co-conspirator was already on file and in use; no doubt in the next five years it would be simple enough to find a body to transfer it to permanently. _

"_Some mistakes can be corrected easily," Adele said finally. "If, of course, one is willing to pay the cost?" She held up her hand, revealing a scratch from a piece of glass that had penetrated the towel, and waited a moment as a drop of blood fell onto the surface of the desk. "The only question that remains is, just what price are you willing to pay?"_

_It was a foregone conclusion that ten minutes later, Caroline signed the papers that authorized the Dollhouse to make whatever use of her body they wished for a period of five years. _

_Fifteen minutes later, as Adele escorted her to Topher for her initial imprint, a blond, male doll paused to watch, a flicker of memory from a previous imprint surfacing for the first time. Caroline turned, and saw a familiar, tender expression form on an unfamiliar face as Alpha whispered "Caroline."_


End file.
